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As part of a coherent and intelligent
approach to ecological development it is necessary to incorporate
appropriate aesthetic and design guidelines to ensure that a rethink of
the development process does not provide a new carte blanche for
aesthetic chaos. more »
Ecological development should always proceed
from the basis of an ecological analysis of the potential site.
Potential land use patterns should be considered from an ecological
perspective. Urban development should be fitted into the framework of
broader patterns established by ecological imperatives. Land use
planning should fit bioregional perceptions.
more »
Proposed by Paul F. Downton, and adopted in
the Concluding Session of the International Conference and Exhibition
on Architecture of Cities held in Calcutta on the 20th November 1990. more »
Initially drafted in association with
Chérie Hoyle and Emilis Prelgauskas, the Ecopolis Development
Principles (EDP) were intended to provide a clear set of precepts for
developing human settlement that restored, rather than destroyed,
ecological health. In its first incarnation there were 12 principles.
The revised version here has 10 principles divided into
‘biophysical’ and ‘biosocial’
groups - one being about minimising ecological footprints, the other
being about maximising human potential. more
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Defines an ecological development process in
contrast to a conventional development process. more »
Nature abhors straight lines, goes the old
saying; nowadays we might say she does things in fractals instead.
Nature also abhors exact repetition. Nothing is ever the same twice.
Symmetry abounds in nature, but even in symmetry things are not
identical. Look at the symmetry of a face, or a leaf. Both sides
similar, but different; developed according to the same pattern, but
with individual realisation. more
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Cities are at the centre of the storm of
ecological destruction. Everything in the biosphere is connected and
cities are part of the global ecosystem. They embody the values of the
civilisation that produced them.
Industrial civilisation has exploited the
environment and the community to leave us with cities which suck their
hinterlands dry. City and country are interdependent and each city's
hunger for land to feed, house and fuel its growing population has been
exacerbated by industrial colonialism so that cities now spread across
the face of the planet like a cancer. more
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